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Author: Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum

Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum Z"L, an ultra-Orthodox educator and innovator who created a series of dial-in phone lines with lectures on sacred texts, passed away March 23, 2008 at the age of 68.
Rabbi Teitelbaum pioneered the now-popular concept of a subscription phone service that allowed users to listen over the phone to lectures on the Talmud with his Dial-a-Daf service, founded over 20 years ago. Since the system was computerized 15 years ago, it has handled more than 5 million calls.
Rabbi Teitelbaum grew up in Queens, the son of Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Teitelbaum, and later moved to the Boro Park section of Brooklyn. He taught sacred texts for nearly 40 years in the primary school of the Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah in Brooklyn, where he was also director of curriculum. Teitelbaum founded and ran Camp S’dei Chemed International summer camp in Israel.
Friends described Rabbi Teitelbaum as relentlessly energetic and constantly writing articles, developing new projects and dispensing advice. He even learned judo. He wrote on subjects ranging from fraud and Ponzi schemes to Intelligent Design (in which he believed) and modern technology. A family member said that Teitelbaum would often bring a pen and paper along to weddings so that he could write in his spare moments.

Some say it’s the Arabs in Gaza. Others blame it on the PLO. Others say it’s Arafat. Some say it’s everybody. Others claim it’s nobody. Who’s throwing the stones? I once was in Bnai Brak to visit a Yeshiva. The…

Over and over again the Torah tells us the importance of being holy. Kohanim must be especially careful and avoid becoming tomei. Since something tomei cannot be seen or felt, the Torah must tell us exactly which objects give off tumoh so that we can know to…

No middoh is as dangerous and ugly as the middoh of ga’avoh – haughtiness. Seforim refer to it as the very strongest source of tumoh. It is responsible for the downfall of even the greatest of men. Even though one should follow the middle road in all of one’s middos, yet when…

The bold print below is from Wilson’s Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem concerning the underground chambers of the Temple Mount. He calls them “cisterns.” A few years later, Charles Warren checked Wilson’s measurements and made many additional ones of his own.…

The bold print below is from Wilson’s Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem concerning the underground chambers of the Temple Mount. He calls them “cisterns.” A few years later, Charles Warren checked Wilson’s measurements and made many additional ones of his own.…

The gemorrah in mesechta Eiruchin lists seven causes for getting tzora’as. On the top of the list is loshon hora – evil talk. Certainly if one were to choose the one aveiroh that is the most common of them all and the easiest to violate, it would probably be loshon…

To “check out” an item from the library, please click on the underlined words. 1. Wilson & Warren’s Map of the Subterranean Chambers of the Temple Mount. During the 1860’s, Charles Wilson and Charles Warren, two English surveyors and historians,…

Exhibit 50a- Bais HaMikdash. The Bais Hamikdash as it looked 2,000 years ago. The various doorways and entrances have been displayed and discussed in other rooms of the Museum. Based on drawing by L. Ritmeyer. Exhibit 50b- Bais HaMikdash. The…

CHAPTER 5 MISHNAH 1: THE WHOLE AZARAH(48) COURTYARD WAS ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SEVEN [CUBITS] LONG BY A HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE WIDE. FROM EAST TO WEST IT WAS A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SEVEN. THE SPACE IN WHICH THE ISRAELITES STEPPED(17) WAS ELEVEN CUBITS. THE SPACE…

CHAPTER 4 MISHNAH 1: THE DOORWAY OF THE SANCTUARY(34) WAS TWENTY CUBITS HIGH AND TEN WIDE. IT HAD FOUR DOORS, TWO ON THE INNER SIDE [OF THE DOORPOST], AND TWO ON THE OUTER SIDE. AS IT SAYS, THE SANCTUARY AND TEMPLE…